Former *NSYNC star Justin Timberlake spoke with MTV News’ John Norris in an ‘All Eyes On Justin Timberlake’ feature, where the singer discussed Prince and David Bowie being an influence on his new album, his reflections on the Super Bowl breast flash incident, realizing he’s not considered an R&B artist, but a pop artist, and collaborating with T.I., will.i.am, and Timbaland on the disc.

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Timberlake said about the new album being comparable to Prince. “You’re talking about someone who is the best at what he does. Nobody is Prince. I think he’s always been a conscious inspiration. On the first record, between ‘Off The Wall’ era Quincy Jones/Michael Jackson era stuff, to the Stevie Wonder stuff, there was also a little bit of Prince inspiration on the first record… It’s so hard to analyze what was conscious. The only thing that was conscious was to not really have any rules. I’d like to think that’s how it’s comparable to somebody like him. He’s legendary for giving you something new every time.”

On how getting compared is inevitable, Timberlake said, “I’m part of that generation. From Michael, I remember people saying, ‘Oh, he’s like a young James Brown. He moves like a young James Brown’. For Prince, I remember people saying, oh, you can definitely see the Jimi (Hendrix) influence, but I think that’s what we do. We take from the people we love and then we make something of our own out of it.”